Sex and scandal in the eighteenth century
The Hunterian Museum <http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums>
's spring season of evening lectures presents four authors whose
recently-published books explore stories of sex, scandal and
celebrity in Georgian London. To book please call 020 7869 6560 or
email museums@rcseng.ac.uk <mailto:museums@rcseng.ac.uk>
. Tickets cost £5. The Hunterian Museum will be open on the night to
lecture ticket holders from 6pm.
Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons
35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3PE
**The surgeon, the countess, her husband and his lover**
Thursday 19 March, 7pm
Wendy Moore
John Hunter, the pioneering surgeon, and Mary Eleanor Bowes, the
eccentric Countess of Strathmore, were fellow science enthusiasts and
friends in the electrifying atmosphere of Enlightenment London. But
when the countess was tricked into marrying a wily Irish
fortune-seeker, Hunter was drawn into a murky world of clandestine
births, illegitimate babies and abortions. Discussing her new book,
Wedlock: How Georgian Britains Worst Husband Met His Match, Wendy
Moore reveals the seamier side of 18th-century London.
**In armour complete or not**
Thursday 23 April, 7pm
Ian Kelly
Actor and historian Ian Kelly, author of the internationally
acclaimed recent biographies of Giacomo Casanova and Beau Brummell,
brings to the Hunterian a full and sexually frank account of the
underside of theatrical and demimonde life in 18th-century Europe.
Based on unprecedented access to the medical records of Beau Brummell
and the files of the Venetian Inquisition, the stories of these two
notorious dandy-libertines provide a unique insight into the risks
and rewards for the sexually adventuresome of another age.
**Making sex electric: Dr James Graham and his Celestial Bed**
Wednesday 20 May, 7pm
Lydia Syson
Lydia Syson tells the story of Britain's first sex guru, Dr Graham,
proprietor of the Temple of Health and Hymen. His unconventional and
flamboyant approach to medicine encapsulated the spectacular and
erotic Zeitgeist of the late 18th century. Grahams Celestial Bed
used electricity, magnetism, mind-altering gases and musical automata
to stimulate ecstasy and conception, and his infamous Lecture on
Generation taught Londons aristocracy to aim for nothing less than
the sexual sublime.
**The scandalous Worsleys: sex and celebrity divorce in the 18th
century**
Thursday 11 June, 7pm
Hallie Rubenhold
The trial of Maurice George Bisset for criminal conversation with
Sir Richard Worsley's wife made headline news in 1782 when details of
their private sexual arrangements were revealed. More surprising still
were the suggestions that Bisset had been only one of 27 lovers
enjoyed by Lady Worsley. Hallie Rubenhold, the author of Lady
Worsley's Whim, discusses the subject of her recent book.
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